Wasting your time with things I find interesting, amusing, or enraging. Reinke does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations

“Face it. For good or ill, you have a personal brand. In fact, in the eyes of others, you are your personal brand. Just like some retailers are known for great customer service and some airlines are known for lost luggage and surly gate agents, you are known for the your own combination of personality, behavior, and presence. It’s your brand.

If you come across as empathic and approachable, that’s part of your brand. If you sometimes miss deadlines and let other commitments slide, that’s part of your brand.

Your reputation is your brand. Your brand is your reputation. And it makes a world of difference in every relationship you have.”

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FROM A MARKETING TYPE

I like it. I told the students just the other day that they get a chance to create their own definition of themselves every day. It followed on a discussion of Esso picking the name Exxon because it meant nothing in any language so the firm could make its own definition of that combination of letters.

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MY RESPONSE

While you can brand sand, I still don’t think you can brand people. As a matter of fact, I tell anyone who listens that if folks who spend all this time on “branding” spent as much time on their Unique Value Equations and Unique Sales Propositions, they’d be better served.

It’s all about — as far as human beings are concerned — about communicating “value”. UVP what do you give buyer and what do you retain for yourself and USP how do you communicate it.

Coke and Pepsi need branding; people can’t. Other than “burger flippers”, they are not interchangable.